Annoying Newsroom Behavior No. 63

Years ago, there was an editor and a reporter who loathed one another.

I don’t know if he was trying to run her off. But he made it amply clear that he was not satisfied with her work. Over and over. And not in private.

For her part, she did nothing to conceal her disdain for this guy, who was her section editor.

I was not friends with either of them. But there was one thing the editor did that made me side with the reporter.

She would be writing a story and he would come up behind her and look over her shoulder at her computer screen. Now that’s not really a big deal. It happens. But it was how he did it that made a lasting impression.

He would lean over her back and practically put his chin on her shoulder. It almost looked obscene.

It wasn’t really physical intimidation. She could have kicked his ass.

But the face he would make as he read her story suggested that he was experiencing severe gastro-intestinal distress. It was something to see.

Even before he opened his mouth, everyone nearby knew he was not about to say “That looks good.”